‘The future will be littered … by adopters or non-adopters.’
In today’s global economy, where products designed in Rhode Island are manufactured in China, shipped back to Rhode Island and then sold at retail throughout the United States just weeks later, the knowledge of when and how many of the products can hit the shelf is critical.
Every aspect of today’s economy is driven by speed – speed to market. The consumer is no longer willing to wait, will not pay extra, and has an expectation for an absolute assurance in quality.
The world’s economy has responded to these demands with a number of business strategies. One involves manufacturing taking place in the lowest-cost regions of the world. Others involve manufacturing approaches that drive out inefficiencies. For example, the more progressive firms have adopted lean manufacturing approaches. The result is production that relies on customer pull instead of marketing-driven push production, with an eye on cutting actual process times.
Regardless of where or how products are manufactured, much of business is seeking just-in-time delivery of manufactured products. Retailers don’t want their own inventory – they want immediate access to someone else’s inventory. Manufacturers don’t want to store components for their business, but they want those components when and where they need them. No excuses and no delay.
Anything short of peerless speed, superlative service and flawless quality and the product is returned, the brand’s reputation is adversely affected and a blog entry is likely to appear.
The future will be littered not with big versus small companies, but by adopters versus non-adopters. The non-adopters will die quickly.
But adoption is not as simple as signing a purchase order for new logistics software. For many years our industry was low-tech and built on fork lifts, 18-wheelers and men and women laborers. Just a few years ago we served southern New England companies that manufactured, then kept their inventory. We were brought in to ship their product to customers. That model is almost absurd today.
Today our industry is going through a transformation, one from which the winners will emerge larger, but improved, provided they can integrate new technology and practices. At the simplest level, manufacturers or retailers can go online and track shipments 24/7.
For one national retailer, we stage products that are shipped in from China, then as a retail event such as back-to-school arrives, we ship the featured back-to-school products to their 7,000 stores.
Another company based in Rhode Island, designs here, manufactures components in Asia, assembles here and then ships to customers both domestically and internationally. In both cases, they want to know exactly where their products are in real-time and they want to be able to look at it on the Web – even at three o’clock in the morning.
Their desire is driven by their need to compete against other smart companies across the world. Today’s economy is creating tremendous opportunities for businesses that are willing to transform. Even for companies in the low-tech realm, the future demands transformational change and pays off with even greater opportunities for growth.
Greg Foreman is the president of Cumberland-based Dean Warehouse Services.
